1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to movable body apparatuses, exposure apparatuses and device manufacturing methods, and more particularly to a movable body apparatus equipped with a movable body that moves along a predetermined two-dimensional plane, an exposure apparatus equipped with the movable body apparatus, and a device manufacturing method using the exposure apparatus.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, in a lithography process for manufacturing electron devices (microdevices) such as liquid crystal display elements or semiconductor devices (integrated circuits or the like), an exposure apparatus such as a projection exposure apparatus by a step-and-repeat method (a so-called stepper), or a projection exposure apparatus by a step-and-scan method (a so-called scanning stepper, which is also called a scanner) is mainly used.
In recent years, however, a substrate subject to exposure in an exposure apparatus (especially, a glass plate subject to exposure in a liquid crystal exposure apparatus) has tended to increasingly grow in size, and in the exposure apparatus as well, a size of a substrate table that holds the substrate has increased, and position control of the substrate becomes difficult owing to the weight increase accompanying the size increase. As the solution to solve such a problem, an exposure apparatus has been developed in which the empty-weight of a substrate table that holds a substrate is supported by an empty-weight cancelling device (empty-weight canceller) made up of a columnar member (e.g. refer to PCT International Publication No. 2008/129762).
In this type of exposure apparatus, the empty-weight cancelling device moves integrally with the substrate table along the upper surface (guide surface) of a surface plate that is a plate-shaped member formed by, for example, stone. Further, since the guide surface of the surface plate is used to guide the substrate table along a two-dimensional plane with high accuracy, the guide surface is finished so as to have the very high flatness degree.
However, in order to drive a substrate, which has grown in size, with a long stroke, it is necessary to increase the size of the surface plate having the guide surface used when the empty-weight cancelling device moves, and therefore, the machining of the surface plate becomes difficult. Further, when the surface plate grows in size, it becomes difficult to carry (e.g. transport by a vehicle) the surface plate to a place where an exposure apparatus is installed (e.g. a manufacturing plant of liquid crystal panels).